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Today is the second anniversary of “The Passionate Genealogist” blog. I have had fun and met some wonderful people.

I want to thank everyone who follows “The Passionate Genealogist.”

Other genealogy bloggers who are celebrating anniversaries are:

A Tale of Two Ancestors which has now merged with Amanda’s Athenaeum

and

GeneDocs: Genealogy and Legacy Preservation

Congratulations everyone!

Are there any topics or websites you would like to see on “The Passionate Genealogist” blog? If you have suggestions please leave them in the comments below.

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Thirty five years ago we were all sitting in front of our televisions watching the first episode of an eight episode miniseries called “Roots” based on the book by Alex Haley. The miniseries ran from January 23-30, 1977.

“Roots” held the attention of a continent for eight straight nights. I can’t think of a television show that would do that now. There were about 55 actors starring in the production. The time period was from about 1750 through to 1870.

This was a television show that changed a lot of lives. Many people began researching their family history because of watching “Roots.” It made people curious about those who came before them.

How did “Roots” change your life? Did you start researching your family history because of “Roots?” Do you remember sitting in front of the television to watch this epic story?

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

I would like to wish all my readers a very Happy New Year and a Happy Hogmanay.

May you finally break down that brick wall in 2012!

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers in the United States. Have a happy and safe holiday.

Today is the 189th birthday of Gregor Mendel and Google has paid homage to him by creating their logo in a pea theme.

Gregor Mendel was the father of the science of genetics. He studied the inheritance of certain traits that were found in peas. He was an Augustinian Friar living in Austria when he started his study of the humble pea.

As with many great thinkers his research was not recognized until after his death. At the turn of the 20th century his research was rediscovered and this was the beginning of modern science of genetics.

The knowledge of genetics has helped many around the world including those interested in genealogy.

To all my readers in the United States – Happy Fourth of July! I hope you are all enjoying the picnics, barbeques and family gatherings. Tonight will be the big night for fireworks.

This year is the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty. She has been a part of many firework displays in New York harbour.

While you are enjoying all the family gatherings why not sit down with one of the senior members of the family and have a chat. See what stories they might have to tell. You may find out something new about the family.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

While I am a firm believer in using research techniques to find information on my family there is the ever present serendipity that shows up at the most opportune times.

I had found a reference to a possible marriage between Thomas Kelly and Mary Orford in the Marriage Licence Indexes at the National Archives of Ireland. The reference read:

Kelly, Thomas, Kildare, Gent, Mary Orford, Dublin, Sptr, 3 Aug 1767 St. Anne’s parish

I thought this was a great find for so early a record. Then in the 1980s I ordered some copies of “The Irish Ancestor” edited by Miss Rosemary ffolliott. There were nine journals to read and I was enjoying going through them all. In journal No. 2 from 1971 I came across an article called “Old Parochial Registers of Scotland: References to Parties from Ireland” extracted by Donald Whyte.

The first page described the project and the first few extractions were noted. When I turned the page the second extraction jumped out at me. It read:

“11th August 1767: Thomas Kelly from Kildare in Ireland and Mary Orford from Dublin being well attested as single persons & of good Character having got publication of Banns, were lawfully Married here this day”

This extract came from the OPR’s for Kirkcudbright. I ordered the film from the Family History Library to confirm the extraction. What they were doing in Kirkcudbright and why they married there is a mystery. The marriage licence is dated the 3rd of August and the marriage took place on the 11th of August. Since they had a marriage licence from Ireland it is possible that they only read the banns once. The distance from Kildare to Kirkcudbright is over 400 kilometers and travel in 1767 was not the swiftest.

If I had not decided to order some back copies and if there was not an extra copy of the 1971 journal then their actual place of marriage would not be known. Why they went to Scotland and how they actually got there remains a mystery which I hope one day to solve.

While doing a cluster research project in Cheshire in England I came across an interesting entry in the marriage register. Daniel Broadbent married Martha Cheetham by licence on 9 March 1780. Daniel signed his name and Martha signed her mark. “Behold!” in bold letters is written above the entry. There is a note by the minister who presided over the marriage:

“N.B. A peculiar Marriage! Daniel Broadbent was aged twenty three – Martha Cheetham aged eight three!”

The minister’s feelings may be the reason the marriage was done by licence and not banns. Maybe he refused to read the banns for a marriage with such an age difference. It would be nice to know why they decided they should get married.

While looking for the marriage of my Great Great Grandparents I came across the first marriage for my Great Great Grandfather Henry Thompson. In a round about way this also helped me find the marriage of his sister.

They were married at the same time. I would not have found this by ordering the marriage record from Ireland as they only provide you with the marriage record for the couple requested.

The Family History Library has microfilms for early civil registration records in Ireland and when you get a copy you get the full page of entries. This is how I found the marriage of Priscilla Thompson.

Henry married Hannah Fayle and Priscilla married George Richard Fayle. It is a case of siblings marrying siblings. George was a witness to Henry’s marriage and Henry to George’s. William Thompson was a witness to both and is Henry and Priscilla’s brother.

I had not known of Henry’s first marriage. My Great Great Grandmother was his second wife. He lost his first wife and child within six months of each other just over a year after the marriage.

Have you come across interesting entries in parish registers or other records? Has serendipity found its way into your family history research? Please tell me your stories in the comments below.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research

The first few months of this year have proved challenging for me with regards to family history information that I have shared with others. There was the tree on Ancestry that has my information linked to a family that is not related to mine in any way. I can prove this with documentation but there is nothing to be done.

Photographs that were shared with another researcher showed up on Ancestry without my knowledge. The photographs were shared with someone who was directly connected to the people in the photographs. They did not ask my permission to put my photographs online. One was attached to the wrong person. I respectfully requested that they be removed. They were and it was appreciated.

Then the photos showed up on other trees in Ancestry. They were probably copied to other researcher’s files before they were taken down. Now the problem of the photograph being attached to the wrong person is rampant throughout Ancestry’s family tree database and probably will continue throughout the internet.

Another family line was connected to a family tree where the link was minute. The two families married into the same family generations apart and were not direct lines. Still they had the family tree four generations down connected to their family tree.

When I requested the pictures to be taken down from the family trees some of the people could not understand why I would not share my information. One person said it should be online for all to find. Some got rather hostile.

If someone is found who shares a direct line I share my research. Now I only share information from the shared generation back and not forward. Sometimes I wish I knew back in the 1990s what I know now but as Maya Angelou says “You did what you knew how to do, and when you knew better, you did better.”

While all this was going on Marian Pierre-Louis of Marian’s Roots and Rambles had a blog posting called “The Digital Age Discourages Sharing.” Marian discusses the fact that the internet encourages too much sharing and that if it is found on the internet then people feel that copyright does not apply. The sub topics were photos, writing, genealogy and the future. Go and read Marian’s blog posting as it is very informative and provides food for thought on the subject.

Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers has come out with a chart to help people decide whether or not to post an image. The blog post is called “Infographic – Should I Post This Image?”

The frustration for me is that it feels like people are collecting names to add to their tree to make it as big as possible. People are finding information on the internet and not examining it closely enough to make sure there really is a connection. They are not researching the records for themselves in order to prove the connection that was found on the internet really exists.

I understand the elation of finding information on the internet that seems to relate to your family. The excitement of finding distant cousins and family connections not previously known can be exhilarating. Gathering names from family trees posted on the internet is not doing family history research. In my opinion you are missing out on the best part of the research process by only focusing on the internet.

New information is being put on the internet everyday but at the same time less than 2% of all genealogical information is found online. At some point you will have to go to libraries and archives as well as purchase birth, marriage and death certificates to further your research.

The internet is a great tool, I use it everyday, but it is just a tool. To further my research I need to go to the brick and mortar repositories to find more information. Most of my brick walls are broken down with research in libraries and archives.

When I started my research in the 1970s you had to mail a letter of request and wait for a response. If payment was required you mailed that in a return letter. Then you had to wait for a response and hope that the search was successful. Finding distant relatives was not part of the process as they were difficult to locate.

In the 1980s there was the Genealogical Research Directory. You would pay to put in your names, dates and places of interest and a large book would come out each year. If you found a connection in the book you would write the person a letter and hopefully share some information.

I could not wait for the book to come out each year and went through it several times with a highlighter to make sure nothing was missed. Writing paper, envelopes and lots of stamps were purchased, not to mention International Reply Coupons. It was exciting to find a variety of envelopes in the mail box. I got quite a collection of stamps from around the world. A distant cousin in South Africa was found through this book. The family had not been in contact since both our Great Great Grandmother’s wrote to each other in the late 1800s.

In the 1990s when I started online you could use mailing lists to find people and share information but you still had to mail the information to them. It was at this time that it took one year from the time a family tree was sent to a distant cousin and another distant cousin was found who sent my own tree back to me. They did not know it had come from me in the first place. A little research showed it had been through four different people.

Now in the 2010s you can contact someone online and it is feasible that within 10 minutes or less you can have confirmation and information shared. You do not even have to contact anyone you can just download their tree from their website or the online database they are using. People are still sharing information with me that originated with me and they do not know it.

Now this will not stop me from sharing my information but it will curtail what and how much I share in the future. People need to understand the power the internet has and the effect it can have on your privacy. Maybe the pendulum will start to swing the other way and privacy will be in vogue again.

There also has to be a certain respect for the work and effort of the person who did the research on the family in the first place. There are notes in my family tree that tell me where the information came from originally. It includes a person’s name and contact information.

Two questions keep coming to mind – How can you be sure that the family tree you find online is really yours? How valid is the research that was done on the family tree that you have found?

©2011 – Blair Archival Research

Last night’s episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” featuring Kim Cattrall was a repeat of the UK episode Kim did. The opening was different as they showed a timeline of her career which they did not do in the UK version.

They cut a whole section of the episode where she searched passenger lists to see if her grandfather had left the country. It turns out he stowed away on a ship to the USA. There were small snippets taken out in other parts of the show.

They put subtitles in the US version when Kim met Bella’s family. The note about the family being in touch with the family in Australia was at the end of the UK show.

Kim’s search was really interesting and all the twists and turns kept your attention. If the powers that be are listening it would be fantastic to see more of the British episodes of “Who Do You Think You Are?” on North American television.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research

February 22nd is World Thinking Day which began in 1926 as a time when girls in Guiding throughout the world would think of each other and give thanks. The date itself is the shared birthday of Lord Robert Baden Powell and his wife Olive. Lord Baden Powell started the Scouting movement and Olive Baden Powell was the World Chief Guide.

I was involved in the Guiding movement starting as a Brownie and went on to Guides, Rangers, Junior Leader and Tawny Owl and finished my career as a Brown Owl which is a leader of a Brownie troop.

On the Sunday before the 22nd all the local members of Guiding and Scouting went to a church service and gave thanks. We marched down the aisle and presented our colours and then after the service we picked up our colours and marched out.

When I was in the movement it was called Thinking Day but at the 30th World Conference held in Ireland in 1999 they decided to make it World Thinking Day to show the global aspect of the movement.

My mother was in Guiding as a young girl. When I became a Brownie my mother volunteered as a leader and eventually was the Commissioner of our district. My paternal grandmother was active in Guiding and was a leader. She met my grandfather at a gathering of Guides and Scouts in Glasgow. My father was involved in Scouting.

Two of my grandfather’s cousins were so active in Guiding that they were awarded a Member of the British Empire (MBE) by the Queen for their service to Guiding. The Queen herself was active in Guiding.

It is sad that the next generation in my family has not continued on with the tradition of Guiding and Scouting. I found the experience was fantastic for learning new things and testing my abilities in a safe and supportive environment. I can pitch a tent and light a fire with the best of them. I learned to cook over an open fire and how to keep the pots from turning permanently black from the fire. There was home nursing where I learned how to change a bed with someone in it and how to care for people at home.

It was the goal of many to collect as many badges as possible. You had to fulfill certain criteria and have someone sign off on the fact that you completed the requirements. There are badges available that reflect all the concerns and interests of people today. The badges introduce the girls to different ideas and may create a spark for a future career. They provide them with the skills they will need to care for and support themselves. Today you can get a badge for family heritage.

Younger girls are being welcomed into the movement with a group called Sparks.

In 1975 I was part of an event called Guiding on the Move which was part of our 65th Anniversary celebrations. It was a National Girl Guide project that allowed over 1000 girls to travel across Canada and exposed them to the different ways of life to be found throughout Canada. The group I was with included Guides from around Ontario and the Northwest Territories. We all gathered at our district camp site and went to Hamilton and stayed on the Navel base and toured the city. Then a larger group gathered for a special day celebrating Guiding at the Canadian National Exhibition. I remember marching into the stadium with all my new friends who were part of Guiding from around the country.

Of course there was the cookie sale held every year. We would go to every door in the neighbourhood twice, the first time picking up orders and the second time delivering them. There were only two flavours, chocolate and vanilla. This year Cookie Day will be held at Sears but I have yet to find a specific date for it.

Last year the Girl Guides celebrated their 100th Anniversary.

The Girl Guides motto is “Be Prepared” and their slogan is “Empowering girls will change our world.”

©2011 – Blair Archival Research